Magic To Make The Mind Go Mad
by Cry-Of-A-Warp-Engine
Summary: Max was only trying to re-connect with her old town upon returning there after five years. She was especially looking forward to meeting Chloe again, and to eventually show her what she'd been building over the past three years. But when she entered the party, Max had no idea that she'd already entered it several times before. Episode One of Temporal Reckoning.
1. Vortex Club

_10-8-2013_

_I've still not been having much luck with the console unit. It's getting me frustrated, I built the thing yet I can't figure out how it's not working. The only thing I can think of that I've yet to check over is the chronometric calculator board, and that could take days to get around. To think… I thought I'd be happy coming back to Arcadia. I am happy to be back, back in my childhood, in a class with a world-famous photographer, yet… the machine worries me. I worked so hard on it for almost two years, ever since I started seeing time differently._

_I still need to get back to Chloe. I should have messaged her sooner, it was five years too long to speak to her again, we've only messaged a bit, back and forth. I have a feeling I'm gonna see her soon though. Tonight, actually._

_I tend to avoid large crowds but tonight, I'm making an exception. Tonight, the school is throwing a party._

* * *

Loud music thumped through the floor, the beat resonating throughout the school. A Quickly repeating pulse, Max almost felt it was as if the school had a heartbeat. She had tried to get in with the crowd, mix with people, maybe even dance a little, anything to step out of her comfort zone.

Thus far, it hadn't worked.

"Max, what's up?" Max looked up from her folded arms, leant back against the wall to the side of the hall. Speaking loud over the music had been Dana, who stood a little to her left side with beer in hand. "Couldn't help but notice you a little bit down. You okay?"

"Y-yeah, thanks… I just don't get on well with large crowds." Max answered, Dana looking around for a moment before extending out her hand, offering Max the disposable cup. "I usually keep to juices or tea."

"Try everything once, Max." Dana responded. Max thought on it for a moment before she took the cup. "Now hey, don't go cra…" She tried to warn Max, who having never tasted alcohol before was unprepared for the fact that when she took a larger gulp as though it were juice, her mouth was flooded with a taste that was comparable to metal and left a tingling sensation once it passed like the weakest of burns.

"Shit!" Max's hand covered her mouth, stopping herself from spitting the beer out long enough for her to manage swallowing it. "I'll pass on any more." She handed the cup back to Dana, who patted her back a few times as Max let out several quick coughs.

"Still got baby tongue?"

Max looked up once the coughing passed, recognising that voice as though she'd only heard it yesterday.

"Not quite my kind of dive, but… hell, you're here."

Max turned to her right with the greatest of smiles. "Chloe!" Chloe staggered back a bit, taken by surprise when Max practically jumped at her and held her arms around her.

"Jeez, chill out girl, you're acting like I died or something." Chloe responded with her arms halfway to returning the hug. Max let go a moment afterwards, only now even looking at Chloe properly enough to see her blue hair and right arm tattoo, changes done since the last time they'd met.

"Sorry, but… damn, I missed you." Max looked up at her, as had always been the case she was about a half foot shorter than Chloe was. Dana decided to leave them to it as they got into conversation. "How have you been?"

"Up and down, here and there and everywhere in between. Not having you around was… tough." Chloe answered, Max returning to being leant against the wall beside her.

"I tried to keep in touch as best as I could."

"I doubt that."

"What do you mean by that?" Max looked up at her again, Chloe's gaze still across the dancing and moving crowds.

"You texted me for about a year, then there was a whole three year gap and then out of the blue six months ago, 'hey I'm coming back to Arcadia!'." Max looked down towards the ground, when hearing it put that way even she had to admit she'd done a pisspoor effort. "But… you do know timing. Your text that day came right when I needed you most… I had a friend who disappeared."

"Disappeared six months ago… Rachel Amber?" Max asked, having seen the missing posters around.

"She was a very good friend, one of the best… Then she vanished. It had been two weeks, I was already well towards a complete freak out when suddenly… there your name was on my phone one morning." Chloe looked around, quick to brush off the emotions getting to her. "Shall we go for a stroll? Somewhere I can actually even hear myself think."

"Yeah… good idea." Max nodded, the two heading for the door. That was until a few meters ahead of it, their path was blocked off by none other than Victoria Chase.

"Oh look, now there's a surprise. Max bought new clothes, how much did the dress cost sweetie? Ten dollars?" Victoria said in her usual 'I'm superior' tone, followed by the laughter of her groupies a few steps behind. Max looked down at her dress, a short sleeved dark green one that ended at knee length with a pleated skirt, whole Chloe simply stood with her arms folded, eyes locked into a stare at Victoria. "While I thank you for admiring my appearance so much, I'm not into girls… or junkies."

"I'm waiting for the right moment, for you to say the right words so that it'll be hilarious when I cut you off midway through by busting your jaw open." Chloe responded in a stern tone. Victoria acted unphased, but Max still saw her take a step back.

"You wouldn't have the guts to, bitch."

"Sorry what? Call me that again."

"I can do better than that… I can smell that stinking weed coming off you, fuckin' druggie. Or is it Max I can smell?"

"Insult me or her one more time!" Chloe stepped forward, barely a foot left between her and Victoria. "Nothing?... thought so." She stepped down and turned back to Max…

"Get her to take a selfie of the two of you on that old polaroid, it's a lot more physical than only imagining you're fucking each other."

Chloe turned around slowly, her eyes locking on to Victoria again… then she looked behind her. "Mr Jefferson, hey there!" The moment Victoria turned around, she only had a split second to see that there was no Mark Jefferson there before she felt a hand grip the back of her neck. "I lied." Chloe growled before she threw her arm forward, smashing Victoria's face against the doorframe.

"Chloe, stop!" Max grabbed Chloe's other arm and pulled her back, Chloe letting go of Victoria who collapsed to the ground cradling her hands over her bleeding mouth and nose, letting out a screech so high pitched Max thought for a moment it would shatter the windows.

"Let's go." Chloe said before she and Max quickly left the party, leaving Victoria to be helped by her groupies.

"You really busted her up… that was a bit cool." Max spoke once she'd jogged a little to catch up with Chloe as the two walked through the school hallways.

"Yeah, guess it was. One thing though, seriously what is with the dress?" The two stopped as Chloe looked at Max's clothing.

"I guess I wanted to make a good effort to socialise rather than being the lonely freak in the corner." Max answered, Chloe huffing a small laugh under her breath.

"Didn't do much different though." Max's eyes moved to the floor behind Chloe, until she stepped closer to her. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to be social, Max. But don't change yourself for them. If people are worth having, they'll take you as you _really _are."

"You being philosophical confuses me, Chloe."

Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "Not like you were gonna do it. Come on now, my truck is in the parking lot. We can hop down to the beach."

Time passed, they drove in Chloe's rusty old truck for a couple minutes and pulled up on the beachfront. For a moment while getting out of the truck, Max felt something. Was she nervous? Afraid? She wasn't sure, it was somewhere in the middle. But she'd only felt this once before.

The day Chloe's father died.

"You spacing out there? Return to earth, spacecraft Maxine." Chloe said as she stepped around the truck, stood in front of it for a moment before climbing up and sitting on the hood.

"I just… forgot how beautiful Arcadia bay could be." Max answered as she stepped up with her shoe on top of the front wheel, straightening out the skirt of the dress as she shifted over next to Chloe, legs hanging in front of the grille.

"It does have its moments and places. I know I've gone hardcore punk slash rockstar but don't think I forgot how to see beauty." Chloe replied, Max's gaze moving away from the sunset glowing orange over the ocean and to Chloe for a moment.

"I never did for one moment."

"You're still Max Caulfield, that's for sure." Chloe smiled, as for the briefest of moments she could swear she felt like the two were kids again. "Why did you take three years without talking to me, Max?"

"I… I could say it was because of school but… honestly-"

"Please, honestly. I need to know."

"...Something else started soaking up all my time. A… project. You weren't the only thing I lost touch with, I was...a bit too obsessed with it."

Chloe restrained her responding feelings for a moment and looked over at her. "What was the project?"

"You wouldn't believe me." Max stayed looking at the sun for a few seconds, looking at Chloe after those seconds were silent. "A… a time travel engine."

"Seriously?"

"Completely cereal."

"Max…" Chloe quickly slid off the hood, walking a few paces ahead. Her arms crossed and Max knew she didn't believe it, even more so it pissed her off. She turned around. "You cut contact with me to work on a childish fucking dream you at fourteen should have known wasn't real!"

"Chloe, I'm sorry-"

"That won't cut it Max, that won't ever cut it!" Chloe shouted, Max stepping back a bit in fright. "You of all people should know that time travel is the shit of sci-fi and fantasy, there's no captain Kirk slingshotting around a star, there's no Doctor Who flying through a time vortex-"

"It worked, Chloe!" Max shouted in response. Chloe went silent, staring at her. "No, it's not like a Tardis or a space ship, it doesn't hop back to the eighteen-o-four or ahead to the twenty-fifth century but it works, I've backtracked several hours and I've skipped an entire day before."

"No, now you're definitely bullshitting me."

"I'll prove it, Chloe. I wouldn't lie to you. Let's get in the truck and head back to Blackwell, the machine is in my dorm room."

Chloe turned around and looked at Max for a moment, thinking it over. Every part of her logical mind was yelling at her that it wasn't possible… but she wanted to believe her friend. Because if there was one thing she remembered about Max, it was that her words were true and she wouldn't lie to her. "Fine… let's see this 'time machine' then."

The two got in the truck and Chloe turned them around on the sand… then, when the school was ahead of them, they heard a deep, loud bang, sending a shockwave beating through their chests. Then the smoke began to rise from the school, the entire main building.

Then…

* * *

Loud music thumped through the floor, the beat resonating throughout the school. A Quickly repeating pulse, Max almost felt it was as if the school had a heartbeat. She had tried to get in with the crowd, mix with people, maybe even dance a little, anything to step out of her comfort zone.

"Max, what's up?" Max looked up from her folded arms, leant back against the wall to the side of the hall. Speaking loud over the music had been Dana, who stood a little to her left side with beer in hand. "Couldn't help but notice you a little bit down. You okay?"

"Y-yeah, thanks… I just don't get on well with large crowds." Max answered, Dana looking around for a moment before extending out her hand, offering Max the disposable cup. "I usually keep to juices or tea." She answered, while looking up and noticing Victoria across the hall along with a student Max didn't recognise.

"Try everything once, Max." Dana responded. Max thought on it for a moment before she took the cup. "Now hey, don't go cra…" She tried to warn Max, who having never tasted alcohol before was unprepared for the fact that when she took a larger gulp as though it were juice, her mouth was flooded with a taste that was comparable to metal and left a tingling sensation once it passed like the weakest of burns.

"Shit!" Max's hand covered her mouth, stopping herself from spitting the beer out long enough for her to manage swallowing it. "I'll pass on any more." She handed the cup back to Dana, who patted her back a few times as Max let out several quick coughs.

"Still got baby tongue?"

Max looked up once the coughing passed, recognising that voice as though she'd only heard it yesterday.

"Not quite my kind of dive, but… hell, you're here."

Max turned to her right with the greatest of smiles. "Chloe!" Chloe staggered back a bit, taken by surprise when Max practically jumped at her and held her arms around her.

Chloe looked around, quick to brush off the emotions getting to her. "Shall we go for a stroll? Somewhere I can actually even hear myself think."

"Yeah… good idea." Max nodded, the two heading for the door and out to the hallways.

"I don't seem to remember you being a very dressy kind of girl… it's nice though." Chloe spoke after a few seconds of walking down the hallway, locker banks on either side and years of old chewing gum so pressed into the floor it was almost as though it were part of the concrete tiling itself.

"I guess I wanted to make an effort to socialise."

Chloe stopped, Max quickly after. "Don't change yourself for other people, Max. Let them like you as you are."

"You being philosophical confuses me, Chloe."

Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "Not like you were gonna do it. Come on now, my truck is in the parking lot. We can hop down to the beach."

The two continued out of the front doors and past the swimming pool, down to the parking lot.

"Very… um…"

"It's not pretty, just say it and get in." Chloe finished for her, before turning the ignition. Nothing. "Come on, engine, I just fixed you!" She got back out and headed around to the front, raising open the hood to look inside. "Some fuckwit took my battery?!"

"Wait, what?" Max questioned as she headed around, looking at where the battery should have been mounted, only seeing the two connectors hanging by their cables.

"Fuck!" Chloe slammed the hood down, Max backing up quickly. "Oh go on, take a picture."

"I'm not taking a picture, Chloe." Max responded, Max being a bit surprised to see that Max had taken out a smartphone, though it was an older Samsung Galaxy S2. Max looked at the notification that she'd felt buzz through, seeing it was a social media post from Victoria. If they'd gotten into the truck, the school wi-fi would have lost signal to her phone by now. "'The hall is getting hot wtf'."

"Someone's messing with the heating?" Chloe questioned, Max putting her phone back in the small pocket of the dress.

"Let's take a look. Adventuring like old times, hey?" Chloe smiled and nodded before the two headed back inside the building and to the elevator, which despite being recently refitted still had graffiti on the metal walls of it and this particular time, was filled with the distinct smell of urine.

"Someone obviously drank too much in that party." Chloe said as they stepped in and Max pressed the basement level button.

"With some of the people around here, it wouldn't surprise me."

The doors opened a few moments later, the main elevator in the building always having been quick. They stepped out, turned left and were instantly confronted with no other than Nathan Prescott, frantically messing with the old analogue computer controls which were wired up with the electrical and heating systems across the school.

"Hey, you're gonna blow up the building, idiot!" Chloe called across the room to him. Nathan quickly turned around to look at the two, eyes narrowing.

"You stay there, I'm looking for something." He warned them, looking back to the old controls.

"If it's a self destruct button for the school, just keep on as you were because that boiler looks fit to burst with that pressure." Max responded, Nathan looking up.

"Yes I know, thought I'd try blowing it up differently this time. Got a bit bored of cutting the gas pipes and flicking my lighter, too basic."

"The hell do you mean?"

"Chloe Price, do you know how many times I've had the delight of blowing up this school? Thirteen times now." Nathan spoke, all with a smile that was little short of creepy. "Now then, I'm looking for a massive power source around here, since I was kindly given some time powers I figured I could use it. It's to do with time travel, it's like I can feel it."

"You've gone mad." Chloe responded, folding her arms. "Now calm that boiler down-" She and Max both quickly jumped back as a bang echoed out, a 9mm bullet smashing straight through Nathan's head. Max had looked away the instant it happened, as the explosion of blood on the other side was almost instant.

"So as far as days go…"

Chloe looked across the room… it was Max. Max was stood beside the boiler, pistol in hand… but she was also stood beside her.

"This one's a little weird."


	2. Repetition

"S-she shot him…"

"I know, just breathe, Maxie."

Chloe was holding her Max close to her, who was in a shaken state after seeing Nathan get shot. "You're… Max as well?"

"Yes, it's complicated." The other Max responded, stepping down from the raised platform on which the boiler sat. "We've been here before."

"Nathan was talking about killing us before, you mean…"

"We have been caught in a timeline loop, the same half hour or so is repeating over and over again and… well, I've yet to find a way in which it turns out in a win for the home team." The other Max explained, before stepping towards them, the 'real' Max letting go of Chloe as she mostly managed to clear her head. "In my universe, a different universe, I was somehow given the ability to rewind time around me while retaining the memories of the alternate futures I aborted. Now I was rewinding in my universe when something happened that dragged me into the past… the very far past."

"How far?"

"Far enough that I found myself in my nine year old body again. Something happened there, a backlash against my rewind abilities and it threw me back to the present but… in doing so, it somehow gave Nathan Prescott there a form of rewind ability too…" The parallel Max looked at her wristwatch quickly. "We're out of time… I'll see you again- wait, any idea how to stop you two leaving the disco? You need longer there."

"I don't know, put some good music on?" Max responded.

"Get the DJ to play Piano Fi-"

* * *

Upon heading into the disco room, Max slipped her phone back into her dress pocket only a moment before someone grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back from the door. "What the he… hell…"

"Listen to me, this is important. I know you have a thousand questions but really, listen." The alternate Max spoke quickly. Max got a closer look than she had before, though obviously not remembering before. Behind the makeup and the dyed hair in a style that she herself would never even contemplate having, this Max looked older, she was either about in her early thirties or was only a couple years older in her twenties and very stressed. "Time is looped, you have a heightened sense of time so you must be able to tell something is wrong."

"I have felt a bit… woozy."

"Yes, right, we're on our fourteenth loop now. Nathan Prescott is trying to find a 'power source' you created, he doesn't know it's you though so listen… I need to know what Chloe knows."

"You mean… Chloe knows more about Nathan?"

"I can't be sure but in my universe, right before I met her again after five years she had just had a bit of a nasty encounter with him a few days before. And it was the same exact date as today so while events surrounding you are different to those around me, I need to know about her."

"So… you want me to ask?" Max looked in the door, and her eyes widened a bit as she could see Chloe amongst the crowds. The parallel and/or future Max placed both hands on both her shoulders.

"In a minute, I'm gonna link up and change the music… in the last cycle she said it would likely keep her in the disco a bit longer to hear her favourite track."

* * *

"Try everything once, Max." Dana responded. Max thought on it for a moment before she took the cup. "Now hey, don't go cra…" She tried to warn Max, who having never tasted alcohol before was unprepared for the fact that when she took a larger gulp as though it were juice, her mouth was flooded with a taste that was comparable to metal and left a tingling sensation once it passed like the weakest of burns.

"Shit!" Max's hand covered her mouth, stopping herself from spitting the beer out long enough for her to manage swallowing it. "I'll pass on any more." She handed the cup back to Dana, who patted her back a few times as Max let out several quick coughs.

"Still got baby tongue?"

Max looked up once the coughing passed, recognising that voice as though she'd only heard it yesterday.

"Not quite my kind of dive, but… hell, you're here."

Max turned to her right with the greatest of smiles. "Chloe!" Chloe staggered back a bit, taken by surprise when Max practically jumped at her and held her arms around her.

* * *

"Shall we go for a walk? Somewhere I can actually…" Chloe was about to suggest they head for the beach, a more quiet and peaceful location where they could properly go over the events of the past few years. Then Piano Fire - Sparklehouse came on. "Fuck a walk, wanna dance Max?"

"We don't have time." Max blurted out, as her parallel counterpart's words replayed in her head. "I mean…"

"Oh fine then. I'll catch you in a bit, I'm going to rock out." Chloe responded, Max could tell it was a mix of disappointment and a sprinkling of anger.

As Chloe headed to the dancefloor area alone, the alternate Max was watching in a corner and quickly followed her counterpart as she left the disco.

"I had one chance, not just to help you but also to reconnect with her and I blew it… what now?" Max questioned as they walked out into the corridor, turning to face her counterpart.

"Well for starters the theories I'm coming up with are all saying that we need to get more people in on this, so if you go by Max I'll go by Maxine, easier when people want to call us. Okay?"

"That's fine but does that aid us right now?"

Maxine extended out her hand. "Dance with me. For science… need to know what I'm dealing with." Max hesitated but slowly joined hands with her, the two starting in a slow dance pace, mostly for Maxine to get a feel for her parallel self's body movements. "It makes it harder that you like her."

"What?"

"You like Chloe."

Max went quiet, considering what Maxine had said. She had to admit, the way Chloe had changed felt a lot different to her childhood friend, very much more intriguing in ways.

"And trust me, give her a little time to know you and she likes you too. I've seen the way you two look at each other in past cycles, there was one time you saw Nathan get shot and she comforted you like you'd never been apart, another time Victoria threatened you and Chloe bashed her head against the wall, it was actually pretty funny."

"But… we're so different now, and people have said plenty of times that seeing someone grow up-"

"-tends to kill the chances of romance. Light newsflash for you, you took that the wrong way- can you let me lead?" Maxine responded, stopping for a second as Max kept trying to step against where she was going. "When I met my partner, it was in a restaurant. Have you ever heard a man trying to hum opera?"

"I can't say I have." Max answered, after thinking on it for a moment and imagining how it would sound.

"Well I told him to 'either shut up or sit somewhere else'. And instead… he sat right next to me. And he's been there ever since." Maxine responded.

"How does that… after such a rude exchange he sat beside you?"

"I was straight up and honest to him. And he was with me, and we liked that about each other. You and Chloe must be the same."

Max thought for a moment again, a question had come to mind. "Why are you so contempt to bring me and her together?" Maxine stopped moving right there, her hands letting go of Max's.

"Because I want you to have the chance I lost. When I ran back into Chloe, she was killed by Nathan in a bathroom. I reversed time and saved her, and I reversed time again and again through several times in which she would have died until the change in destiny was so great that it formed a storm to destroy the entire town… I had to go back and let her die to save Arcadia. And I… I loved her so much and it was so hard, it still aches five years on."

"Five years… you're twenty-three now?"

Maxine nodded, before placing her right hand on Max's shoulder. "Whatever you do, Max… Chloe is more important than anyone else. Whatever the cost, don't fall into the same pit I did. Save her."

"Maybe the timeline will be different now. Maybe she won't be endangered at all."

"I really hope so. After time I managed to be happy with Warren but… I still miss my best friend, my first partner… and I still feel as though she was meant to be my match."

"You were meant to be with her yet she was meant to die?"

"Time doesn't follow a straight line, Max. Personally… I believe there was a third option. Or a way to twist both, I missed it but I think… I know there was a way to save both. To make Chloe's initial survival the only change, a small enough alteration that the storm would never happen, she would live and all would still be brought to justice. And I failed to find it…" Maxine checked her watch, which Max now recognised. It was a small one on a plain black thin leather strap… the same watch Chloe was wearing right now. "As my asshole of a counselor would say, that's all we have time for. You'll do better next time." Her hands went to cup Max's cheeks. "You have to."

Then the streaming fireball began to spread throughout the school and as soon as it hit them, both were instantly incinerated.

* * *

"-there your name was on my phone one morning." Chloe looked around, quick to brush off the emotions getting to her. "Shall we go for a stroll? Somewhere I can actually…" Chloe was about to suggest they head for the beach, a more quiet and peaceful location where they could properly go over the events of the past few years. Then Piano Fire - Sparklehouse came on. "Fuck a walk, wanna dance Max?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Max responded quickly, grabbing Chloe by the hand and leading her towards the dance floor area, all while Maxine watched them with a smile. Of course this dance was a lot different to a slow dance, in a way that made it a little easier for Max. "I bet I look like an idiot!" She called over the music while laughing.

"You look great girl, shake that boney white ass!" Chloe responded, laughing with her.

"I need to ask you something, Chloe… you know of a Nathan Prescott?"

Chloe slowed down a bit. "What? What have you got to do with that creep?"

"He's here. And he's trying to find a powerful engine which I built, he's looping time over and over again to do it and he's going to damage time badly if we don't stop him fast. There's a version of me from another universe and about five years into the future over there, she exists outside our local time so she can remember all the past cycles." Max nodded towards where Maxine was stood.

"Okay… why are you asking me?"

"Because I like you… She said that makes it easier and I think some little bit of you likes me as well." Max answered. Chloe looked down a bit, knowing inside that it couldn't be more true.

"If time is getting repeated then none of this matters…" Chloe spoke after a moment. Max wondered what she meant, then got her answer. She meant that there wouldn't be any repercussions, no need to get embarrassed or 'freak' about kissing her there and then.

"That was nice…" Max spoke quietly after they parted, almost too quiet to be heard over the music. "So… what do you know about him then?"

"Nathan's a jerk who… slipped something in my drink and crept up on me with a camera." Max stepped back a half pace upon hearing that. "I am… certain it wasn't his own idea though. He mentioned something about…" Max could tell she was struggling to bring the words out of an evidently uncomfortable memory. "Something about living this 'perfect moment' several times over."

"He could rewind… he must have used it as a test for whatever he's using now."

"I think I've worked it out." Maxine said as she stepped over towards them. "He doesn't have the full extent of my abilities but he's been able to make a sort of anchor point, an exact position where he will return to every time he is killed which is why he keeps blowing up the school."

"So how do we stop him?" Chloe asked. It made Maxine smile with a tiny bit of sadness, to see Chloe in on all the action again.

"We sever his powers… or we hold him up until the half hour period has passed, then-"

"Then blast his fucking brains out."

Maxine rolled her eyes. "Yes, Chloe… you never were afraid to say something. Well, apart from that you liked me very much…"

"I just don't like getting mushy."


	3. Loss

"Nathan!"

Nathan Prescott looked up from his dangerous work of breaking his way into the power grid of the building, an attempt to use it to pin down the power source. "Can't you see I'm busy here? And you, you've been cheating!" He spoke angrily, pointing at Maxine.

"You won't find the power source there because it's not connected to the grid. It's in my dorm room." Max responded. Nathan looked at her, right at her. Max could have sworn she could feel his eyes looking over if she would be a good next victim after his work with Chloe.

"Show it to me." He motioned to the door. Max led them out of the school building and towards the girls' dorm. Entering her room, Chloe found herself looking at everything and smiling. The polaroid printouts all across the wall, the camera itself sat on the desk beside her laptop. Even the guitar she remembered Max had only just learnt to play when they last met.

Then there was the tall, slim and shiny cylinder in the corner of the room.

"Is that the power source?" Nathan asked, reaching out and touching his hand to the smooth metal.

"It looks so… precise." Chloe spoke as she gazed at it, then to Max.

"The power source is inside of it. It's a temporal displacement drive system-"

"Say it in English!"

"-a time travel engine."

Nathan looked at her, eyes widened. "Time… travel. You mean… backwards and forwards?"

"It's not like a movie, it jumps in hours rather than years but… yes. Forwards and backwards." Max answered.

"Well then… open your TARDIS, miss Doctor." Nathan stepped aside, allowing Max to step up to the door, clearly indicated by the one part of the cylinder which was flat and not round.

"It's not a TARDIS… and no."

"What?" Nathan stepped closer to her, now having taken a shiny silver gun from his jacket. "You're not gonna open it, are you?"

"And you won't harm me because only I can open it." Max responded. Chloe had to smirk a bit at that, how Max was playing on what Nathan needed.

"Wicked Max, I love it!"

Nathan glared at Chloe, then at Max. "No… I won't. Physically." Then he raised the weapon and quickly fired. The bang echoed throughout the dorm.

Max's heart stood still. But only for a second.

"CHLOE!"

She darted over, catching Chloe as she fell. The bullet had pierced between her ribs, blood started to cough up from her mouth. Maxine's eyes gazed at the two. This scene was even more horrifying to see than when her own Chloe had been shot, that time death had been almost instant.

Here, Chloe was going to wither. Painfully.

"Max…"

"Dont, hang on… please…"

Her shaky hand touched Max's cheek, a small trail of red dropping from her hand down Max's skin. "Do what… you need to…"

"I- no, I'm not letting you go!"

But then she was gone.

"Rewind."

Maxine looked at her, snapping out of her dazed thoughts.

"Rewind now, bring her back! You said you can rewind time, do it!"

"She can't."

Max looked at Nathan, who with a shaking hand had lowered the gun and was staring at Chloe's lifeless form. "I… I- I didn't want to kill her, I…"

"Reset the cycle. You and I will remember this and we can end this before it began." Maxine spoke after a moment, turning to Nathan… but he shook his head.

"I can't. I didn't set the school to explode when you revealed the power source to me, to reset something needs to happen that would make it impossible for me to reach the engine… the whole point was to give it to my father, Prescotts are trying to open a power station to give Arcadia its own grid, when I got your power and could feel the power of this engine I… I thought that if I could take it, it would power the town." Nathan explained, Max's eyes widening, then narrowing.

"Then you're an even bigger idiot! The engine isn't electrical, you couldn't even run a coffee machine off it, it's the wrong kind of energy entirely!"

"I know…" Nathan put the gun back into his jacket, finally moving his eyes away from Chloe. "So… what do we do with her?"

There was a moment of silence between all three of them. Max was looking down at Chloe, then to her clock, then the time capsule… then to Nathan.

"You said you need a reason to reset…" Max responded after the moments passed. "Something that would prevent you from obtaining the power?" Nathan nodded, then Max clenched her fists, the words being a struggle to get out. "Give me your gun."

"Max, what are you doing?" Maxine asked, as Nathan hesitated for a moment before taking out the pistol again, holding it by the barrel and passing it to Max.

"You know."

"Yes… Yeah, I know. I just can't believe that you'd… you'd do it."

"Yeah you can… because you would." Max looked at her parallel self, who knew she was right. "For her, there is no limit."

"Wait, wait, hold up…" The two looked at Nathan. "When we reset… you'll need to be very quickly convinced that this whole thing was real."

"Very true." Maxine agreed.

"So… tell me something, something that will instantly convince you that what I'm telling you is real. Tell me a secret you've never told anyone before." Max looked at him hesitantly. Like anyone, she had her secrets but for one that had never been told, for that to be the case it would have to be something very sensitive to her. Something she wasn't sure she could trust with anyone or worse, was too ashamed of.

"You won't tell anyone else?"

Nathan nodded. "I swear, Max." Max stepped close to him, leaning towards him and to his ear. She whispered, and he listened. She stepped back again after a second, and he looked at her while processing what he'd been told. "I'm… so sorry." Max looked away, out of the window, clearly not wanting to discuss the secret any further.

"So… what exactly are you doing to force a reset?" Nathan questioned, glancing between the two Maxines.

"I'll tell you what…" Max's arms shook, every part of her was telling her not to do this. But she looked at Chloe, the blood in her top, the pain in her now lifeless eyes… and that was enough.

Then the bang went off. Max fell right beside Chloe, hey eyes wide in an expression that seemed little short of shocked. It was almost like the life hadn't left her immediately upon death, that she had just enough of a second to feel the bullet rip through her head before it killed her.

"Nathan…"

The Prescott was in a daze, eyes shocked from what he'd seen. If anything, the fact that Max had been willing to die to bring Chloe back just made him feel more guilt for killing her.

"Nathan, the reset!"

"Wha… yeah… should be enough to-"

* * *

Loud music thumped through the floor, the beat resonating throughout the school. A Quickly repeating pulse, Max almost felt it was as if the school had a heartbeat. She had tried to get in with the crowd, mix with people, maybe even dance a little, anything to step out of her comfort zone.

Thus far, it hadn't worked.

"Max, what's up?" Max looked up from her folded arms, leant back against the wall to the side of the hall. Speaking loud over the music had been Dana, who stood a little to her left side with beer in hand. "Couldn't help but notice you a little bit down. You okay?"

"Y-yeah, thanks… I just don't get on well with large crowds." Max answered, Dana looking around for a moment before extending out her hand, offering Max the disposable cup. "I usually keep to juices or tea."

"Try everything once, Max." Dana responded. Max thought on it for a moment before she took the cup. "Now hey, don't go cra…" She tried to warn Max, who having never tasted alcohol before was unprepared for the fact that when she took a larger gulp as though it were juice, her mouth was flooded with a taste that was comparable to metal and left a tingling sensation once it passed like the weakest of burns.

"Shit!" Max's hand covered her mouth, stopping herself from spitting the beer out long enough for her to manage swallowing it. "I'll pass on any more." She handed the cup back to Dana, who patted her back a few times as Max let out several quick coughs.

"Still got baby tongue?"

Max looked up once the coughing passed, recognising that voice as though she'd only heard it yesterday.

"Not quite my kind of dive, but… hell, you're here."

Max turned to her right with the greatest of smiles. "Chloe!" Chloe staggered back a bit, taken by surprise when Max practically jumped at her and held her arms around her.

"Jeez, chill out girl, you're acting like I died or something." Chloe responded with her arms halfway to returning the hug. Max let go a moment afterwards, only now even looking at Chloe properly enough to see her blue hair and right arm tattoo, changes done since the last time they'd met.

"Sorry, but… damn, I missed you." Max looked up at her, as had always been the case she was about a half foot shorter than Chloe was. Dana decided to leave them to it as they got into conversation. "How have you been?"

"Up and down, here and there and everywhere in between. Not having you around was… tough." Chloe answered, Max returning to being leant against the wall beside her.

"I tried to keep in touch as best as I could."

"I doubt that."

"What do you mean by that?" Max looked up at her again, Chloe's gaze still across the dancing and moving crowds.

"You texted me for about a year, then there was a whole three year gap and then out of the blue six months ago, 'hey I'm coming back to Arcadia!'." Max looked down towards the ground, when hearing it put that way even she had to admit she'd done a pisspoor effort. "But… you do know timing. Your text that day came right when I needed you most… I had a friend who disappeared."

"Disappeared six months ago… Rachel Amber?" Max asked, Chloe nodding.

"She was a very good friend, one of the best… Then she vanished. It had been two weeks, I was already well towards a complete freak out when suddenly… there your name was on my phone one morning." Chloe looked around, quick to brush off the emotions getting to her. "Shall we go for a stroll? Somewhere I can actually even hear myself think."

"Yeah… good idea." Max nodded, the two heading for the door. That was until a few meters ahead of it, their path was blocked off by none other than Nathan Prescott. "Nathan?"

"The fuck you want?" Chloe asked, folding her arms in a displeased manner.

"Max, Chloe, listen. We've been in a time loop, a half hour long loop repeating over and over again but it's ending, now me and your parallel universe self need your help to remove her powers from me and return them to her."

Max and Chloe looked at each other, then back to Nathan. "I think you need a time out."

"No, this isn't me being crazy and I'll prove it because in the last cycle, you told me something that would convince you this was real, and you know I can't have learnt this by any means other than you telling me." Max tilted her head down slightly with her eyebrows slightly raised, a curious gesture of hers. "You've never been in love, Max."

Chloe moved a tiny bit back, then looked at Max. Max's eyes had drifted to the floor, her mouth slightly open. "Max… is that true?" Max looked at her. Even after five years since last seeing her, Chloe knew the look on her face and what it said.

"I believe you." Max looked back to Nathan, who nodded and motioned them to follow him.

The three crossed the campus and arrived at Max's dorm room, Chloe taking a look around. The polaroid printouts all across the wall, the camera itself sat on the desk beside her laptop, it made her think of the events of the past few years. Despite the gap in years, despite having felt abandoned for three of the years, Chloe had to admit she was proud of Max for having been brave and followed her dreams. Max stepped to the time capsule and opened it, finding the other Max already inside.

"Hey again… well, first for you so nice to meet you, me." Maxine greeted her, Max pausing in her steps for a moment before continuing to the console unit.

"Woah woah, hold up, is no one gonna acknowledge or at least explain to me how there's a time machine right outta Doctor Who here?" Chloe called out while looking around with wide eyes. The room was well lit with several aspects and designs she'd seen in Doctor Who before, such as the 'round things' in the wall to one side of the room, or the console unit itself being hexagonal. However the place looked either unfinished or in disrepair, a section of the wall was missing and exposing cables behind, half the components from the console were scattered across the floor from an open hatch, a panel in the floor was even open underneath which there was an area deep enough to stand in, surrounded by circuits and computer banks.

"It's not a TARDIS, completely different-"

"Doesn't look so different."

"-I built it in the time we were apart. The three year gap… I was distracted. By this."

"Well… a couple messages would have been nice but we'll talk more about that later."

Max nodded and turned back to the console. "I'd assume then… parallel universe theory is true and you're looking to go home." The parallel Maxine nodded.

"As well as get her powers back beforehand." Nathan added.

"Right… each of you hold one of these." Max reached under the console and got hold of two cylinder shaped lights on wires. "Upon contact they link you to the engine, like copper connectors in a wall socket." She handed both her parallel self and Nathan each of the connectors. "With luck and crossed fingers the power can pass through the time crystals."

"Time crystals?" Chloe questioned, stepping closer to the three. Then she saw what Max meant. Within the center column of the console, the metal parts of the structure began to glow and thousands of shining blue lights seemed to rise from within the console itself.

"I don't know where it came from. It was in a shop and down as an 'unknown rock'. The moment I touched it was… the moment my awareness of time was increased. I knew instantly it was no ordinary rock… and low and behold, it turns out that by grinding it up and circling it through the engine, it becomes a power source capable of slipping through the timeline."

"Incredible… I wonder if it has anything to do with my abilities." Maxine thought out loud, looking to her past self afterwards.

"Maybe… so you think they can extract the ability?" Nathan responded.

"Think of the transfer, both of you. Think of the power leaving you, Nathan, and entering you, Max." Max suggested, though having never had to transfer a magical power from one person to another before, it was guesswork.

The moment the two's thoughts lined up, something seemed to flash right out of Nathan and down the cable, a golden light almost too quick to see. It passed through the cylinder and through the other cable, zapping into Maxine. The two quickly let go of the connectors after that, as both seemed to develop a burning sensation in their hands.

"Well… that's new."

Nathan stepped back from the console. "I've… got a lot to think about."

"I would say so." Maxine agreed. "Go on. Good luck, Nathan." Nathan nodded, glancing at Chloe as he left the time machine.

"So… what will you do then? You mentioned your power caused damage so I wouldn't say it's a good idea to use." Max asked, looking towards Maxine.

"I'm not going anywhere." Maxine answered. "Well, I mean I am… I'm gonna go out and explore. I don't know, maybe freight hop across the USA or-" Maxine stopped as Chloe handed something to her. A purse, upon opening it Maxine found two different bank cards and several notes of cash. "This… isn't yours, not your style."

"Lifted it from Vic Chase when she wasn't looking. I'd suggest drawing out that cash and dumping the purse before she finds out and cuts the card link." Chloe answered.

Maxine just smiled. She remembered what her Chloe was like. This one was hardly any different.

Except maybe a tiny bit less selfish.

A few hours had passed. Maxine had left after getting some rest and as evening approached, the two decided to get some air. Stood in the elevator, Chloe and Max were both a bit stuck on what to say after the events of that day, and neither actually spoke until they were outside.

"She told me we… danced in one of the cycles." Max spoke.

Chloe nodded. "I know, she told me too."

"She said I liked it… I can't even imagine."

"Bit of a shame… I've been told I'm actually a good dancer." Chloe joked, then a moment more of silence. Chloe decided the air had to be broken on an obviously lingering subject. "You've really never been in love? Never even been attracted to anyone?"

"I… no, never. Well… I've thought about it. Imagined marrying someone, imagined… uh…"

"Getting fucked?"

"Yeah…" Max just had to laugh and smile a bit at Chloe being so blunt and to the point. "But… I don't know."

"I think you've been attracted to people. You just don't recognise what it feels like." Chloe suggested. Max thought and found that entirely possible. "Now here… finally time for that beach trip?"

"Yeah… let's go." Max agreed, nodding and smiling as they headed to the rusted old truck.

* * *

_10-8-2013 #2_

_So today was probably one of the most bizarro experiences I've had to write. I went to the disco, tried to socialize but it didn't really work out. Dana got me to try alcohol, not doing that again anytime soon. Then there she was, my old friend Chloe. I was so happy to see her, but before we could talk too much further Nathan Prescott got our attention. Turns out that he'd had the school locked into a half hour long time loop and had decided to get my help in stopping it once he realised he went too far. He didn't say what broke through to him but he did prove that we'd spoken before by telling me one of my own deepest secrets._

_I've never been in love._

_It almost hurts to even write it down here. Not in a mentally torturing way. People are always talking about love, breakups, attractions. Most modern music is about it, many movies have basings around them and the thing is… I just don't understand any of it. But I think I'm starting to._

_I hope._

* * *

Stood at his desk in the photography classroom long after hours, Mark Jefferson was looking on his tablet at his notes for the day. Specifically, his notes that he kept under a coded lock, for his eyes only. He'd been at the party earlier, and couldn't help but hear a conversation with one of his own students. He noted it down, highlighted in all capitals to stand out from the rest.

_MAXINE CAULFIELD HAS NEVER BEEN IN LOVE…?_

_Implicates she has never had a romantic partner. A one night stand in the past is still plausible…_

_Must look into this further._

He flicked the notepad away and the tablet off. Carrying it under his arm, Jefferson left the classroom to head back towards his place of other means of work.

He had some research to do.


End file.
